From Data Analyst to Speaking Coach: The Cooper Camak Story

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, host Pedro welcomes Cooper Camak, workplace communication and speaking coach, founder of Speaking Up Your Game, and former data analyst turned confidence-building expert.

Cooper shares his journey from working at Coca-Cola to launching a successful coaching business that helps professionals overcome speaking anxiety, develop executive presence, and communicate with confidence. He reveals why most people struggle with public speaking, how fear of judgment affects performance, and the practical frameworks he teaches to help professionals excel in presentations, meetings, and leadership roles.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, manager, coach, or professional looking to improve your communication skills, this episode is packed with actionable insights on confidence, leadership, public speaking, and business growth.



Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coopercamak/
Website: https://www.speakingupyourgame.com/

Transcript

Cooper Camak 0:00

Most people we talk to have zero game plan for navigating nerves and anxiety. So that is part of our secret sauce is we teach people a game plan to navigate the nerves, the mental game of speaking, the mental game of I'm not good enough, I don't deserve this, my voice is squeaky, I, you know, I sound like an idiot. All of these things are the mental game of speaking that someone has to overcome and have a game plan for. So one, we teach them that game plan and we teach them what confidence sounds like, not what it feels like, what it sounds like. And we teach them how to prepare content that brings value to your audience. And so value comes by being clear in your message, well delivered, and then this is the other secret, and relevant for your audience.

Davis Nguyen 0:44

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're gonna learn lessons that took RS years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is gonna give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro 1:28

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Cooper K Mac, a former data junkie, turned workplace communication and speaking coach, whose journey from crunching numbers to coaching business leaders gives him a uniquely analytical approach to building executive presence. Since founding Speaking Up Your Game in 2018, Cooper has helped over 1.5K plus BZ workplace professionals grow their confidence, presence, and authority as communicators. Cooper's signature confidence and credibility system helps professionals deliver with more executive presence and advance their careers through team workshops and customizable one-on-one coaching built around real workplace communication challenges. His approach proves that great communication isn't a personality trait you're born with, but a skill set you can systematically develop regardless of your background or starting point. Welcome to the show, Cooper. Hey, I appreciate you having me. Great to have you. Okay, excited to record with you, already established this previous podcast recording. And you know what? I gotta tell you something about me. I'm kind of a comic book nerd myself, right? So I love the first editions, Cooper. Let's rewind a bit because every coach has that moment in that in their life where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you?

Cooper Camak 2:58

Yeah, so we went full time in this space in January of 2024, so two and a half years ago. And even when I started it as a side hustle, I never thought I'd go full time. Just never quite thought, like, could we make a scalable path that would support our family, support our needs? I've got two teenage boys who are in the midst of high school, about to go to college, right? So it's an expensive time of life for a family. And uh, but as things would have it, January 2024, we made the jump and haven't looked back since.

Pedro 3:29

Okay. Well, first of all, I don't feel like a parent. I have two boys as well. They're not teenagers, they're three and seven. I feel more of a referee to be candid. Okay. They they hug and punch in the same intensity in a five-minute time frame. Okay, but it's good to know there's light at the end of the tunnel, you know, they they turn to be teenagers around and all that. Now, I'm curious about the jump. Okay. From first of all, I would love to understand the feelings around it, right? And and the reasons around it. Like, how did that look like for you? From yeah, I'm kind of helping people here on the side to, you know what, I'm going to hit all gas on this, and I'm making this, you know, my only way of living, and this is the thing we're really doing it. So, can you walk us through how that felt?

Cooper Camak 4:13

Yeah, interestingly enough, and I I I don't mind telling this on myself, but the days leading up to it, the weeks, months leading up to it, there were a number of dreams that I was basically like back in a straight commission sales job, not making any money, or that I couldn't get to where I was trying to go in my dreams. And I it just it haunted me of like what is going to come. And surprisingly, since the day I made the jump, that dream has not reappeared. It's really two different dreams, has not reappeared. I've definitely, I mean, there's definitely been in the early days, there's some ebb and flow to business for sure. But that anxiety hasn't quite been there like I thought it would be. And part of it is because I I took some data contracts that helped fill in the gaps while the speaking business was growing, while I was getting my lead generation up for that. And now we've sort of inversed all of that. So now speaking coaching, the workshops, the online course sales, all the things we do on the side have grown tremendously since then.

Pedro 5:15

And how did that became a thing, right, for you? Because we sped up a little bit, we went through your origin story, and then we you made the jump. But I want to understand one thing because it's kind of an identity shift, right? At least for me, I'm a coach too. And I worked in corporate like several years, and one day I saw myself in a birthday party and I was kind of in a transitioning phase. And Becky or Brett Brittany or you know, Robert or Bob or whatever asks you, hey, what do you do for a living? And you're in that transition from used to say, Hey, I do X, Y, and Z. I'm like, hey, I'm a coach. Yeah. But I want to understand how coaching became something for you in the first place.

Cooper Camak 5:50

Yeah. Well, coaching's in my DNA. Encouraging people is in my DNA. Helping people walk through challenges has always been in my DNA. Whether it's been a you know, a rec soccer coach or a competitive soccer coach, it's always been a part of my natural tendency in wiring. And years and years ago, my boss at Coke said, Can you coach our sales leaders on just making better presentations? And at the time, I didn't feel like I was that confident doing it, but I definitely had the capability. And so I worked with them and sort of just in my mind, this thing started to come up of like, if I ever did this full time, I could see how this would play out. And eventually, I don't even remember how a lead service found me. And it was in the early days of this lead service. So I was kind of one of the pioneers and I just threw my name in the hat and literally started coaching people for pennies on what we charge today. But, you know, everybody's out there saying you got to charge big bucks at first, but this was side hustle, it was extra date money for my wife and I. Uh, but eventually I took the leap and just offered my services and worked with a couple folks and realized one, I enjoy it. And two, the things I'm naturally wired for and good at sort of came out. And so here I was, this data guy by day, right? So I'm, I mean, I'm deep in spreadsheets and multiple data sources and and connecting data, finding insights that are helpful for the business. And again, I worked at Coca-Cola for 12 years, right? So lots of work to do in that space. And I mean, I just I really enjoyed this side hustle of coaching people. And so, you know, we raised our rate, we doubled it, we doubled it again, like could not believe that. We doubled it a third time and kind of hung there for a while. But I mean, just when watching people go from either terrified to like, I can do this. And I eventually kind of said, like it packaged it up in a system. But then the other side of it was just watching people nail big presentations they had, and you'd you'd have the debrief call was just life-giving to me, to where I was like, I don't know if I'll ever do this full time. Again, five and a half years is a side hustle, right? That's not what people would say they want. But for five and a half years, I was happy and content with it being a side hustle, and then basically just realized in April of 2023, like, I think we want to make a run for this. And we did.

Pedro 8:13

Okay. A couple things. First of all, it sounds like we're back to the comic book third theme, the the the you know, the superhero theme, because it's like data guy by day and Batman at night, right? So there's that. A little bit. Coach at night. The second thing is like, if I had a full-time job and I have a side hustle for five years, I wonder if I would save the dating money, you know, that you mentioned, because I wouldn't have the time to date with my wife.

Cooper Camak 8:39

So there's also well, luckily I was married, right? So I've been married for man, almost 19 years. So like we were 12, 10, 12 years in. So it was it was helpful in a season when our kids were young. Right. We could put them to bed at 7:30, 8 o'clock, and I could coach at 8 to 8:45, 8:45 to 9:30, 9:30 to 10:15, and just knock out three sessions twice a week. And it was just delightful. It was delightful. It was a fun season trying it out, trying new things. I was I literally built the plane as I was flying it. So I'd have people come in and they'd present something, and then we'd, you know, figure out where they needed to go. And then as they went that direction, and this was before Chat GPT, before AI. So, I mean, I am literally handwriting, when I say handwriting, typing these things up myself and built it into documents. We called them modules that just helped people, and we would give them the module and say, use this as you prepare for the next. And yeah, I'd be part of the coaching, but ultimately just built a system that we realized after coaching about 150 people over about three years, that it was really like we were teaching the same stuff over and over. Okay.

Pedro 9:47

Now I'm curious about the early days, right? And you do have a transition to full-time at point five years ago, but after you got rolling, right? Because in the coaching space, you might disagree, but at the start, we're just trying to to make ends meet. We're helping everyone, right? We're trying to, but eventually we sharpen the tool and uh we kind of attract the people we like to work the most, right? So the ones you realize, I want to understand the ones you realize, like, okay, this is my tribe, this is the people I really can help who are Yeah, it's a great question.

Cooper Camak 10:20

In the early days, because you think about public speaking, you think about public speaking coaching, you've got people who want to be on the paid circuit, you've got people who want to do keynotes, and then you've got the people who are just terrified to talk to anybody in public, right? And that whole space, and then really the workplace. And what I found over and over again was I wasn't like I I could do keynote coaching, but I didn't love it. And it took a lot more listening to them do a 20-minute talk versus a five-minute business presentation. Because in five minutes of a business presentation, me asking you a couple questions, I can tell what your strengths are, what your areas of opportunity are. And so over time, I just realized like this is for the workplace. This is not your keynote. And I know speaking up your game doesn't really say workplace, but I mean, I can't tell you how many people come to me and say, hey, I need to up my game, right? So it fits, but we just figured out that the workplace was a great place for us to sit. Now then you go into the workplace and you have executive speaking, and then you kind of have what we call bench strength, like people mid-level managers, the directors who like it's time for them to up their game. And ultimately we realized that like we could fit a niche where we're not working with the C-suite. We're working with your everyday people who are making project updates, presentations, leading meetings, and just helping them do it confidently with a repeatable game plan that would help them walk in, that they could use tried and true frameworks that would help them lead things well. I mean, I just got off a coaching call earlier today, literally four weeks ago. This person was terrified, terrified of giving a presentation. And she's literally got the presentation tomorrow. And she's like, I've never in my life thought I would be excited about this. But through our structure, she's like, I know this is the way to go. I know what I'm doing. She's bringing a little bit of energy to it, intentional energy. She's not over the top, like bubbly, but just like excited about it. And that's what, that's what we love. And we realize the workplace is our niche to really dial into to help people out. And I think that's where the workshops come in for us, right? When you're in the workplace, you go to workplace workshops. Whereas if you do keynotes, you're you're trying to find everybody who's trying to make more, you know, money doing this. And listen, that's a path. We've just realized that we have a really sweet niche in that workplace. So that's what that's where we realize like that's where we want to focus.

Pedro 12:36

Okay. So let's pretend I'm one of those overlooked everyday people that has a hard time to, you know, show up or even market my the way I'm doing things and through those meetings. I see that. I mean, I worked in corporate, I I can tell what who you're talking about, right? Not in me necessarily, but let's pretend I'm your ICP, your ideal client profile, I'm your I'm your avatar here, right now. Okay. So, first of all, Cooper, how would I be able to find you? You know, marketing-wise.

Cooper Camak 13:06

Yeah, it's it's really twofold in probably our primary approach. So one is through LinkedIn. So we're active on LinkedIn. We don't blast content every day. That's just not who we are. But at least once a week, if not twice a week, we're active on that platform. We've chosen not to get on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok today. Uh, the second would be through Google. Like we've got an active presence there. We intentionally have paid advertising on there that brings in a pretty significant portion of our business. And it's worked and it's taken time to dial it in. But what I would say is when people connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm not trying to find new people necessarily. Yes, I've done some of that, but I am connecting with people who know me and they're I am becoming the name and the face for them and the familiarity of being present in front of them. And that is where in the early days of our work, so 2024 was our first year, 2025 last year, we did 11 workshops. Well, those 11 workshops were spread across six businesses, most of which had us back for a second. And all of those workshops came because of our presence on LinkedIn and just continually talking about the things that we do, as well as right, some value add content, sharing some stories. And then anytime we did a workshop, we were posting pictures about it, right? Just again, if you build that network. And I would say this to anybody out there, I was surprised, but recently I crossed 4,000 followers on LinkedIn and I thought, like, it's still really low compared to some of these people out there. But a year and a half ago, I was at 2,000. So that's an asset that if you're putting yourself in front of people, you can have content that does well. And I've had stuff that flops and I've had stuff that does well. I've kind of gotten through that tension of all of that. But uh look, I mean, last so last calendar year, I mean, two messages from contacts of mine, people I knew, reached out and said, Hey, I'd love to talk about what these workshops are and how you do them and what they cost. So that's how the business came. And the the business has come for people I know for workshops, uh, and really one-to-one in our online course for the Google side of it. Okay.

Pedro 15:14

So a couple of things, right? Interesting strategy. It sounds like you do like to be top of mind, not necessarily interacting immediately, but having that brand showing up to your, you know, your audience. So that's interesting. The second thing, moving forward with our exercise, right? I'm still that guy. I'm seeing my coworkers being, you know, promoted, and I'm not because I don't know how to present my skills. I'm still that, I'm still your avatar. So can you walk me through, first of all, let's say I did saw your content on LinkedIn, and let's say, or I did even Google you, right? Your content popped out for me. I was like, yeah, this isn't something I need. I reach out to you, your business. And uh now, can you walk me through how does it look like to work with you and the potential outcomes I can expect out of it, just so I can have a sense of things.

Cooper Camak 16:02

Yeah, sure. So if we're talking potential outcomes of working directly with me, I would say again, we we kind of help two avatars in this workspace, the terrified nervous Nelly, right? And the person that knows it's time to up their game. So let's go nervous Nelly. Okay. First of all, the secret sauce, and this is what I would say would save anybody 10 years of going through the process of trying to be better, instead of spending hours on YouTube of like why, like trying to be more confident. What we have learned and what the research says is that the reason we get nervous is because really we we care too much about what people think of us. And that's not a problem, it's a human desire to be liked and respected. Okay. But that is what drives our nerves. So we're more speaking in high-stakes settings. That is what causes the nervousness. Most people we talk to have zero game plan for navigating nerves and anxiety. So that is part of our secret sauce, is we teach people a game plan to navigate the nerves, the mental game of speaking, the mental game of I'm not good enough, I don't deserve this, my voice is squeaky, I, you know, I sound like an idiot. All of these things are the mental game of speaking that someone has to overcome and have a game plan for. So, one, we teach them that game plan and we teach them what confidence sounds like, not what it feels like, what it sounds like. And we teach them how to prepare content that brings value to your audience. And so value comes by being clear in your message, well delivered, and then this is the other secret, and relevant for your audience. So the outcome that they're going to get at the end of it is a game plan to produce valuable content for any audience, no matter the stakes, and a game plan to keep their head on straight and to navigate their nerves. And I'll say this when people have a game plan to focus on the value, it takes the focus off themselves. The nerves dissipate dramatically, right? So that's our nervous Nelly. On the up your game side, these people do find themselves nervous in high-stakes meetings and they're like, I'm good 90% of the time, but I'm more nervous here. I guess I should anticipate it. There's more at risk, but they don't understand that what's really at risk is they feel like their reputation's on. So even then, we teach them our framework and our system, how to be better off the cuff, how to answer questions and get to the bottom line versus ramble. We're all tempted when our boss asks us a question to just answer and tell our boss everything we know because we want to be seen like we know what we're talking about. But your boss doesn't care about all the extra. All your boss cares about is what's the answer? Why does it matter? So we teach them the frameworks that help them be better in presentations, better off the cuff. And what we've seen time and time again is these people come out of their shell confidently and get promoted within six to 12 months of working with us, probably 20% of the time. And that's one of our favorite things we see about people. So that's the outcome is a game plan to deliver when it counts and to navigate the nerves, which is what most people say. You just got to learn to speak and learn to speak and learn to speak. Get excited about speaking, but they don't teach you what is this? It's anxiety. Why is it anxiety? Well, it's one of two types of anxiety. Like there's just so much more we unpack with them that gives them a tangible game plan. That's the life change that people experience with us.

Pedro 19:13

Okay. I'm still I'm still that guy. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I appreciate the insights. But if you had to throw me a bone, right? An example of someone who was going through, you know, a tough spot and you gave me this aha moment, you don't have to tell me everything that happened, but something that you see clicking or a pattern you recognize that happens more often than not for your clients, what would that look like?

Cooper Camak 19:37

The big aha for people is really around using a tried, repeatable system that they take with them long after we're done working together that they can come back to over and over again, whether they're leading a meeting or whether they're presenting to their senior executives. That's really the aha. The second piece is a lot of people, when they get in front of an audience and their heart starts pounding, right? That first time it's your turn and your heart starts pounding. There are a lot of people that fight that. And fighting it creates more adrenaline, which makes it pump even harder. And that's sometimes why people panic. But there's an element of if you can accept the nerves while having a game plan to stay focused on the value, things start to settle quicker. Those are the big ahas for people in this space. And it's where a lot of people work with folks and they're like, oh, I just became a better speaker and now I'm better. Well, that's because now you have a game plan, even though you don't realize it, that you've solved your reputation risk problem of looking like an idiot. But really at the end of the day, when you have when you understand that's what you're worried about, but you can bring value, that's life-changing. It's a pretty simple process, but it's kind of mind blowing because no one talks about speaking nerves this way. Everyone thinks it's like I fear failure, I fear judgment, or I'm not prepared enough. Well, guess what? There's some of us we can never be prepared enough because we feel like we have to be prepared infinitely more than the audience, but that's not ever true. And if we can just focus on what the audience needs to know and wants to know, we can deliver something impactful for them that has good ramifications of value that will help us settle our nerves.

Pedro 21:11

I love that, man. Um it hits home in a way, right? So I was a high-ticket sales closer for a while, then I became a coach. And to a certain point in my life, I thought I needed to have all the answers. And when I embraced the I don't know, I'll look to it, I'll look into it, right? It made life so much easier, at least on my end, right? But I'm I'm still curious about the structure, right? So we can deliver a little bit right now for both people looking to work with you or even the coaches that are listening, which is you mentioned a workshop, okay? So I'm curious about that. The deliverabilities, right? Are we talking about one on one coaching? How does that look? Is there an online component? Can you walk us through that a little bit more? Give it a little bit peek behind the cards.

Cooper Camak 21:51

So there's three there's three key components to what we deliver today. There's a digital content where we teach you the system in an online course, and we just take it module at a time. Right, how to navigate nerves, how to build content, how to deliver it so it sounds confident. We call it, we have one of them called our executive presence module. How do you lead a meeting well? How do you answer questions off the cuff, right? Your boss walks up and asks you an unexpected question. The last one we call our game day module, which is like, how do you prepare well so that you're calm walking in the door? And and most people don't prepare well. They over-rehearse and over-prepare, where really they just need to back up and understand the big picture. And we dive into a lot of that. So there's the digital component. The one-to-one, most of the time, 90% of the clients we work with, we do a four-session package with them. And it's a combination of working with them one-on-one, having them practice presenting in a low-stakes setting, but they're combining it with the digital content. So the digital content teaches, and then we are coaching, we're unpacking the nerves, unpacking the anxiety across those four one-hour sessions that we record and give back to them. If you're a coach and you don't record and give back your sessions to your clients, I think you're missing out. Cause I've had people email me literally six months later and say, I went back to our session. It was, you know, just as life-giving now as it was then. And then the last is the workshop. And in the workshop, the benefit of the workshop is one, if you think about giving feedback in the workplace, any feedback you give is your personal bias on that person's work, unless you have a standard that you can speak to. And this is actually what people get really wrapped up in. They just think I'm not this amazing communicator, but they're measuring against some impossible standard. They have no idea what they're even measuring against. But if they can just have a standard, and this is what we do at the workshop and establish that standard, then we can give it to folks in basically a small booklet that we work through in the session. It's very interactive. They get to practice in small groups, not in front of an audience, right? There's a lot of public speaking training where they put you in front of a room and record you and tell you to bring more energy. I mean, I've I've worked with these people. They've been to these multi-thousand dollar workshops, but literally in our workshop, we just get them working in small groups so that when they're done, they've practiced, they have a game plan, they walk into their next meeting, their next project update, their next presentation, and they have the tools in their tool belt to deliver. And of course, we've worked with, like we've had a company bring us in. We did a workshop for their 15 biggest, like top leaders in their organization. And now we're doing some one-on-one coaching after the standard's been established. But now we're going back because they realize we want to train the rest of our team. So we did 15 in the first. We're going and doing another 35 here in September. And then again, part of it is okay, now we can fine-tune the coaching, but I'm not teaching you because you've got the teaching. But when you're a leader and you can speak to the standard to your employee, it's not about my opinion anymore. I can say things like this here's here's an example. You know what? I think your eye contact could be a little better with the room. And that's going to help you build more credibility when you speak. And it's not that you got to hit 100% eye contact, but we can go from 20% to 50%. And the goal being about 70% eye contact. I mean, anybody listening to this, if someone's talking to you in a calm conversational tone and making eye contact, not using overly verbose language like optimization and synergistic mechanisms, right? But just simple language, calm, conversational, and making eye contact. In the business world, that person is an expert and it's that simple. But yet, people feel all this pressure that I've got to be dynamic or I'm too monotone. No, no, no, no. Calm, conversational, make good eye contact. You get those three things right, you're making some progress on how you deliver. So again, I digressed a little bit, but at the end of the day, the workshop helps establish a standard and trains an entire team on what good is, and they all walk out with tools in the tool belt to go crush it in the workplace.

Pedro 25:53

Interesting. Love it. Okay. Now I gotta ask you this, man, because you're a speaking coach, right? And I imagine the delivery must be, you know, you're needed. Let's put it simply like that in the trenches because people want to listen to you, they want to talk with you. You do have the workshops, you do have one-on-ones. And I see a lot of coaches out there advocating against burnout, and sometimes they're burning out themselves, right? So, how do you think about capacity? So don't stretch yourself too thin. And the reason I asked this is because I see a lot of coaches out there wearing all the hats, right? When you were at your former job, you I think you mentioned Coca-Cola, right? I got that right. So you have a weld oil machine in the background running, right? You don't have to stress about a lot of stuff. Now you're a coach, you have Legion, you have, you know, business development, sales, delivery. So how do you manage all that?

Cooper Camak 26:43

Pedro, I'm gonna shoot you straight, man. I'm not saying I manage it really well, right? It's a lot to do writing your own emails, right? Managing your landing pages. Now, I will say for me, I have hired probably six different people that in various capacities help me out. One of them helps me with LinkedIn. Basically, we grabble content. He helps me connect with people that I want to connect with. So that's one instance. There's somebody that helps me create landing pages because I use Kajabi as my platform. But in terms of the capacity, I'll give you the best example. So I take my own lead calls, right? So if somebody wants to book 25 minutes with me, I don't gatekeep that. And early on, if you're doing this, don't gatekeep it. Don't make people fill out an application, is my view of it, because you're gonna have conversations that if you're not getting the right clients, you know your messaging's off. When you start getting the right clients, you know your messaging's on, even if they don't decide to work with you. And I have one simple question in my form what are you hoping to accomplish? Or what challenge are you looking to overcome? Like that's it. And if they fill that out and give me their phone number so we can have a phone conversation, that's it today. But here's my tension, and this is what I would say for all coaches. When my schedule gets booked and I'm traveling for workshops and I've got a bunch of one-on-one calls, right? Then my calendar's not free for sales calls. And that has been a bit of a challenge. And so I that is where I am in this part of the business, like today is do I invest in something like cold email to try to build my workshop business? Do I let me start back? So do I go to cold email and invest in that for workshops? Do I invest in what I'll call like a marketing assistant that just can do a lot of things pretty well, can help me move those things down the field? Or do I just hire an EA? But I think like that EA doesn't need to be working 40 hours a week. But then managing all of that can be challenging. Like I've I've struggled to manage these six people helping me from time to time. It's a lot of work and coming back to it. So, Pedro, to your point, to any coach out there, I don't know that there's a perfect answer, but certainly I am carrying too much today, two and a half years in. And what I've been told by people who have gone before me, who do this in and around Atlanta where I live, that I've met with, one of which a coach, I was a coach I hired and spent time with, is basically like it's about the two and a half, three year mark. You got to be making some tough calls and start investing in the right things. But, you know, if you feel like you're just kind of holding on until then, that could be part of it. But that's the place where we are today. And we're excited about the future. We're excited about giving more people access to us through our workshop, you know, investing more in, you know, the space that I mean, we're not doing any meta advertising, right? But might that be a place we could go next? All these things are things we're we're looking at and trying to make the right next call for our business. So I it's a long answer, but I hope a coach listening to this goes, that was actually really helpful to know. Like, I feel like I'm doing it all too. So I that probably is a long-winded answer. But at the end of the day, yeah, I'm probably doing too much. And I think that's the tension for coaches, but you know, who's got that playbook? Everybody says they have the playbook. I think for each person it's different.

Pedro 29:54

Okay. Now I'm gonna jump on them one of the things you just mentioned, which is future, right? You're excited about future. So I'm curious about where you're taking all this, no, picking up your game, looking ahead, where do you see that business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

Cooper Camak 30:10

Yeah, it's an interesting question. And I think for me personally, in my own story, right, wrong, or indifferent, I I see a path with a YouTube channel. I'd have zero YouTube videos uploaded today. So somebody listening is like, yeah, we'll see if that happens. And I get that. But we want to give away more snippet content for free with a clear funnel to work with us. But we know by from others' experiences that right today, people kind of find me cold and I've got to win them over pretty quickly. But this is the opportunity to win them over, right? Is having content available that they could find. And certainly there's some searchability to the content we're gonna try to build on YouTube. But I think our path of delivery today, online course, the one-to-one in the workshops is still where we want to head, but it might be dialing back the one-to-one or having a more premium pricing for it and giving people more time and attention. But so one is the YouTube, second is the workshops, which we are exploring. How do we go do that? Is it LinkedIn outreach? Is it cold email? I mean, that cold email thing sounds spammy, but at the same time, I've seen people with businesses and it works. And then the last one I would say is the book is something that I think we would like to have, partly because while it's speaking confidence today, there's so much about what we do that's about life confidence. And when we stop negatively judging ourselves and we stop thinking about what other people will think of me and start focusing on serving the world, it's amazing how much confidence there is. So I think a book around that, and then a book about its executive presence, and then a probably a book about life confidence. I mean, those are three that are popping in my head and staying in my head. And I've got a wall here of just all my ideas and post-it notes on the wall, right? So I've, those are the big three. And if I had a dream, I mean, we're close on launching some some YouTube content. I know it's a long game, it may never be found, but I can still use that content to give to people and let them taste what it's like talking to me, interacting with me. And I do have a masterclass out there, a free masterclass for people that's on my website. And I'll tell you, Pedro, I get on the phone with people after that masterclass and they are literally like talking to me like we're old friends. And I know that's what happens with YouTube too. So where do we want to head? We'd love to do that. I mean, do I want to be traveling and doing 40 workshops a year? Probably not. Because I love being at home with my family and my wife. But at the same time, we've got capacity to grow, right? We've got capacity to go do, you know, three to twenty thousand dollar workshops in and around, depending on the size and scope and what people want. So we've got the capacity to do it and we're looking forward to investing in the future. Okay.

Pedro 32:50

Exciting. A lot of spinning plates. I love it. Like I'm getting excited just by hearing you. Now, I would love to to for us to to play something here right now, like a kind of a sci-fi idea, okay? Science fiction idea. Let's pretend we do have a time machine in front of us. Okay. You can go back in time and go to the first day you opened shop, right? And can give yourself one piece of business advice that you wish you knew back then when you started your coaching business. Yeah. What would that be?

Cooper Camak 33:18

Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Next best time is today. But if I could go back, I would start the YouTube channel. And I it doesn't have to be a viral channel, but it could be such a credibility supporter when someone books a call or finds us like, hey, here's more free content, right? And then just having a path to get people to your funnel through that, I think is the easy part. But man, I would say go back and put the content and I'll say this I everybody wants to make profitable money selling online courses, right? They just they think they can make a million bucks doing that. It's been the struggle of our business. We give it as a part of our one-to-one coaching. That's been easy. But the online course, like, we haven't sold as many as we'd like. And that's not like a, oh, I just wish I could, like, it's not even close to what we would like. And I would say that going back, I think building the YouTube channel would have created more opportunities for that in an organic way. And that just meets more of who I am versus a cold, like cold traffic kind of guy. Just not the I I'm much better at like, let's nurture you over time. And when you're ready and and ripe for it, let's let's go. But I get it, it's not always that way. So I would start the YouTube channel, my man. That's that's what I would do.

Pedro 34:29

Okay. We're still using the time machine. I love the the uh the advice, by the way, but we're still in that science fiction idea, and you had the the opportunity to go back to one specific time. Let's say you were the happiest while doing this, okay, since you started your business. I'm not sure if there's an example of a a client or an aha moment for you or something that clicked that between this journey you've been to through with speaking up your game, you're like, that's my my go-to moment, right? What would that be?

Cooper Camak 34:59

Pedro, I have a lot of go-to moments, and I'm so grateful for them. It's hard to put put my finger on one. Even the early days, like they were fun, they were great. I I wouldn't trade them. Last year in the back half of the year, we were cranking and had our best months ever. We haven't quite hit that same number every month, and that's okay. But like, we I love this. And when I say we, I it's a family we like we're all in this together and certainly couldn't do it. I'm, you know, married 19 years of this October. Certainly couldn't do it with my wife, without my wife being on board, and she comes and helps me with workshops. But like, it's been a fun season. I I guess I'll I'll throw this out there. When I started this journey, I said it's a dream that I would be able to take a two-week vacation. Not a one-week, but a two-week vacation. And so our first year, we packed up the car in Atlanta and drove all the way, stopping along the way on a road trip to Maine and went to Acadia National Park in Maine and drove back. And it was about 12 days all in all. And we had such an incredible experience. And we were in a Tahoe and hotels. Then last year we packed up and went to, we flew to Phoenix and then did the national parks in southern Utah. So we went to Grand Canyon and Bryce and Zion and then Moab and back. We stopped at a place called Page, Arizona. Highly recommend Page, Arizona. Lots of cool stuff there. But that was, I mean, I still had my brain on. I still did some coaching sessions from an RV in Arizona. And it, and you know what? The client thought it was the coolest thing. They're like, where's your family? And I was like, they're hanging out outside, like they're they're off, you know, gallivant and having a good time. Like, this was I'm happy to do this. And it was funny because one of them had to come in and grab something, and it was like, you know, they were, and I was just kind of focused and they were wandering around. But that those were probably two gifts that I think this lifestyle has brought. But look, I mean, here it is this summer, and we were supposed to go on a trip to do a kids' camp in Africa, and that got pulled because of the Ebola outbreak. But we're still gonna have great time here and go see some family. And, you know, is it as big as those two-week road trips? No. So I guess I would say from the from the work journey, I've loved, I've loved the season we've had. It's been a gift. The two-week vacations have been a pretty, pretty cool, they've been a pretty cool part of just what we've been able to do.

Pedro 37:21

I love that, man. I can see the spark in your eyes. Okay. And I love that. Okay. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with your follower work, right, Cooper, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, but where can people find you best and connect with you?

Cooper Camak 37:34

Yeah, if you're looking for me, there's only one Cooper Camak on LinkedIn, and I'm thankful for that, right? So you can find me on LinkedIn, but our website, speaking up your game, has got our master class, it's got our information about our coaching. I mean, if somebody's got a big presentation or a pitch coming up, right? We can help you at least frame it up in a conversation that'll help you. So we've got a lot of free resources out there. We've just we're we're actually just wrapping up our quiz. So we've got a quiz that we've been working on. We've got about 40 people who've taken it today. So we're getting some really good data back on that, giving us some really good information and really good insight on folks. So we're we're gonna, and it's been really practically helpful for people too. So we're working through that. And look, man, if we could if there's an ever anything we can do, whether it's help someone up their game or help someone get past the nerves, that's where we love to serve and help the world.

Pedro 38:26

Okay. You know, a few moments from this chat really stood out to me. I gotta highlight them. Okay. When we're talking about the origin story, when you were made the jump, right, from commission uh to building your own business, and you were so honest about your own journey, right? That was not happening. I was not happy. And then we moved to helping co you were kind of coaching sales reps, right? On how to move forward, and you're like, hey, you know what? This could be a thing. So very organic, very natural, right? It's not something you wake up a day and you're like, hey, I'm gonna come up with this, and this is happening. So it was so natural, you know, and advice giving, then you're training other people, and you're like, you know what, this could actually be a thing. So there's that. I like that. Past that, we were talking about nervous Nally, right? I love the way you framed it, right? And it's something that is natural. You're not denying the fact that it exists. You're embracing it, you're owning it and navigating through it between your using your own frameworks and how to do so. But it's not something like, hey, uh, you just push through it, you gotta do a hundred of these, and then everything clicks. Not really like that. It's just like understand what fear means to you that moment, why your heartbeat accelerates for a reason, right? If you try to fight it, maybe you're gonna do a different path and maybe you're not gonna look gonna like the results, right? So I like that. Also, when I was talking about you about capacity, you're telling me, well, I'm still managing, you know? And that aligns perfectly with what you're telling me before. Whenever you find someone who's uh who's a truly expert, you mentioned, it's someone who can speak calmly about their own obstacles, can talk with confidence, and not trying to play someone who knows everything, uh a know it all. And it shows, right? Between your the way you talk. So, man, that that really cool to watch, at least from my perspective, okay? And this is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do. And I appreciate you being here inside so openly today, Cooper. It was great having you on.

Cooper Camak 40:24

It was an honor, Pedro. I really do appreciate it as well. And love what you guys are doing and what you're about, and and just connecting coaches and helping coaches. So appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Davis Nguyen 40:34

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.